ChatGPT’s assist bot hallucinates a function that does not exist within the app.
Screenshot by Tiernan Ray/ZDNET
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ZDNET’s key takeaways
- The ChatGPT app’s assist bot hallucinates this system’s options.
- OpenAI at present has no in-app bug reporting, a severe omission.
- Latest chats present the assist bot has gotten extra educated.
One of many early successes firms have cited in implementing synthetic intelligence within the enterprise is in customer-facing duties reminiscent of buyer assist.
If OpenAI’s personal automated buyer assist is the long run, clients are in for a tough time.
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OpenAI’s automated assist operate inside its ChatGPT app shows a stunning lack of information of the options of the applying, one thing I came upon once I went on the lookout for assist with a bug within the app.
(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, ZDNET’s father or mother firm, filed an April 2025 lawsuit in opposition to OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in coaching and working its AI programs.)
My quest started with a bug within the iPad Professional model of the ChatGPT app. I used to be utilizing a subscription model of ChatGPT, the Plus model, for which I pay $21.78 a month. After a number of months of utilizing the app and not using a drawback, I abruptly seen that resizing the window of the app triggered it to freeze.
A small bug and a nightmare assist chat
On an 11-inch or 13-inch iPad Professional, operating any model of iOS that may multitask, you may put the ChatGPT app into considered one of 4 attainable window sizes, from a really slender window to at least one barely bigger that’s just like the telephone model of the app, to 2 bigger sizes, together with a full-screen window.
I discovered that resizing the window to both full-screen or the dimensions slightly below that, the place slightly little bit of the House Display screen is seen, triggered the app to turn into utterly unresponsive. No contact features generated any response, and even the interface parts of the app — textual content, borders, immediate subject — have been stretched as if the app couldn’t refresh them to accommodate the change in dimension of the window.
I used to be in a position to reliably recreate the issue every time I resized the app, and I used to be in a position to reliably duplicate the issue on a second iPad Professional.
I went to the assistance part of the app, known as Assist Middle, which you’ll find below your account info within the decrease left nook of the sidebar of the app. Not one of the assist articles have been any assist, so I made a decision to attempt the chat operate that pops up in Assist Middle.
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The automated bot, powered by ChatGPT, steered a number of steps that did not assist, reminiscent of forcing the app to give up and reopening it, and deleting the app and putting in it once more from the Apple App Retailer.
And, then, the assist bot abruptly started to hallucinate one thing that does not exist within the app.
“Ship Suggestions within the App,” was its suggestion. “You may report this bug immediately from inside the ChatGPT app (normally below Account or Assist > Report a Downside/Ship Suggestions). This helps the builders get logs and should velocity up a repair.”
“Normally,” maybe, however not on this case. There isn’t a a part of the Assist Middle that’s “Report an issue” or “Ship Suggestions.” It does not exist.
There’s a operate known as “Report,” which may be chosen inside the present chat, from the menu within the upper-right nook, that isn’t for bug stories. That operate is for reporting points with the present chat, reminiscent of, “Violence and self-harm,” or “criminality.”
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I pointed this out to the bot, which, within the agreeable tone for which ChatGPT is legendary, conceded it was probably not a way of bug reporting. “Thanks for pointing that out — you are right. The ChatGPT iPad app at present solely permits reporting particular person messages or chats.”
(By the best way, you may see the historical past of your assist chats from the chat window in Assist Middle in case you log in once more from the Assist Middle. Finest to log in earlier than you interact in any assist chats, to be able to get well a report of the assist chat later.)
Automated e mail assist was simply as dangerous
I then emailed the assist operate from the OpenAI developer forum, assist@openai.com, and described my drawback once more.
In a sequence of automated emails, after describing the problem, the assist operate repeated the identical recommendation because the in-app assist bot, together with telling me to “report this bug immediately from inside the ChatGPT app (normally below Account or Assist > Report a Downside / Ship Suggestions),” including, “This helps the builders get logs and should velocity up a repair.”
Once I protested, the automated e mail once more conceded the error, telling me, “Thanks for pointing that out — you are right.”
I contacted OpenAI — a human spokesperson — and acquired affirmation through e mail that there isn’t a bug reporting operate:
We do not at present provide a devoted consumer-facing bug reporting portal for the ChatGPT app. Folks can discover troubleshooting steps and methods to share suggestions via our official Assist Middle at help.openai.com.
For security-related points, we have now a proper bug bounty program via Bugcrowd: https://bugcrowd.com/engagements/openai. You too can give suggestions immediately within the product — for instance, by giving a thumbs down on responses that are not useful or by reporting conversations that do not meet your expectations. We’re working to make the automated assist replies extra correct and efficient. (There’s a “bug bounty” for builders, however that is not the identical as bug reporting or function requests by common customers.)
The dearth of bug reporting is stunning, because it’s a typical providing with most software program.
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The extra amusing truth is that OpenAI’s bot, presumably skilled on the corporate’s huge corpus of improvement paperwork, did not have the right details in regards to the app’s options.
If that is the state of buyer assist through AI, it isn’t solely not an answer, however it makes the person’s frustration even worse.
A small glimmer of hope?
In my exams, the unique bug persists with the newest app launch, model 1.2025.280. By means of experimentation, I discovered that not maximizing the app window is the one reply.
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Apparently, in my follow-up exams, the app’s assist bot now not hallucinates that I can report a bug. As a substitute, it states up-front that there isn’t a strategy to report a bug within the app and asks for an outline of the issue that may be forwarded to the builders. The bot has lastly discovered one thing in regards to the app it is dwelling within.
A minimum of that is progress, I suppose.
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